Public water system plan review

Basic process

Wisconsin Administrative Code NR 108, allows the Department of Natural Resource up to 90 days to approve, return or deny submitted plans for new construction or improvements relating to a public water system.

When is an approval required?

An approval is required for any new or existing community water system making improvements, extensions or alterations which may affect the quality or quantity of water delivered. Approval is also required for wellhead protection plans for new wells servicing municipal water systems.

In addition to approval of the plans and specifications all new community water systems must receive capacity certification prior to placing them into service. See the Capacity Development web pages for information on capacity development and forms to be completed by other-than-municipal water systems seeking capacity certification.

Community water system means a public water system which serves at least 15 service connections used by year-round residents or regularly serves at least 25 year-round residents. Any water system serving 7 or more homes, 10 or more mobile homes, 10 or more apartment units or 10 or more condominium units shall be considered a community water system unless information is provided by the owners indicating that 25 year-round residents will not be served.

Municipal water system means a community water system owned by a county, city, village, town, town sanitary district, utility district or public institution as defined in s. 49.10 (12) (f) 1., Stats, or a privately-owned water utility serving any of the above.

Other-than-Municipal water system means a community water system that is not a municipal water system. Typically, these water systems serve mobile home parks, apartment complexes, subdivisions and condominium associations.

Public water system means a system providing piped water to the public for human consumption, if the system has at least 15 service connections or regularly serves an average of at least 25 individuals daily at least 60 days out of the year.

Guidelines for plan submittal

A complete submittal varies with type of project and whether there is a submittal checklist for the type of project.

All copies of plans and specifications for projects at municipal or subdivision water systems must have a professional engineer’s seal or signature indicating the plans were prepared under the supervision of a professional engineer licensed in Wisconsin.

Project status

The status of any community water system plan review can be monitored with a link within our Drinking Water System (Oracle application). You will be able to search by facility, by project number or by consulting engineer. The information will be updated on a daily basis. Each record includes projects reviewed beginning in 2006. Please allow a week after your project has been submitted for the information to be entered into the database.